According to the European Council, the
purpose of the tax is “to ensure that the financial sector
fairly and substantially contributes to the costs of the
crisis and that it is taxed in a fair way vis-à-vis
other sectors for the future, to disincentivise
excessively risky activities by financial institutions,
to complement regulatory measures aimed at
avoiding future crises and to generate additional
revenue for general budgets or specific policy
purposes.”

Notably absent from this agreement is the U.K., as The
Guardian’s Peter Hain observes. His op-ed “Why Labour should
put the Robin Hood tax centre stage”
lambastes the government for passing up an estimated £8
billion of annual revenue, which could be used to stimulate job
creation.

As the
official release from the European Council notes, this is the
first time that a group of member states have agreed to ‘enhanced
cooperation’ in the area of taxation.